The moment you end the New Patient phone call and the appointment has been made there are three things that can happen.

1. The New Patient will be looking forward to their upcoming Appointment and understand how important it is.

2. The New Patient will start to forget about how pleasant and engaging you were on the phone and what you chatted about.

3. The New Patient will have second thoughts about the importance of their Appointment and will call you to cancel.

How can you prevent the last two scenarios?

How can you reduce the New Patient Cancellations?

What does your Front Office Team do immediately after the New Patient Appointment is made?

What do they do again between that call and the actual New Patient Appointment?

Is your Front Office Team making the Appointment for the New Patient, and then doing nothing?

Are they just crossing their fingers and hoping the New Patient will keep that appointment?

Your office should always have a Next Step and another Next Step to follow once the Appointment is made.

What should you do?

You made a great First Impression on the Phone and that in itself was a big part of why the caller chose to make an appointment at your Office.

Now send a Welcome Email or SMS as soon as you’ve finished on the phone after making their Appointment. You will surprise and impress your New Patient even more.

I recently visited Universal Studios in Orlando. Four Weeks before our booked date I started receiving emails anticipating my big day out there. The emails started to get me excited in anticipation and I really began looking forward to my upcoming visit. I even told people about the emails, simply because I never ever expected to receive them.

Your New Patient may not have the same anticipation about visiting the Doctor as I did about visiting Universal Studios, but keeping in touch with your patients in advance of their visit can be very similar!

There was no way I was going to be getting my days mixed up. And Universal was reminding me leading up to the event.

Calling your New Patient prior to their appointment, to check they received their Welcome Email/SMS is another great touch point that you can use. On this call you can cover any last minute questions the New Patient may still have.

Start doing this in your Office and watch the difference in your numbers.

I’ve recently had conversations with a number of Doctors and Medical Business Owners and I’ve been fascinated by one comment that I’ve heard them all say….

“I heard my Front Office People answer the phone and I didn’t like what I heard.”

Each Doctor was concerned about how their Front Office Team was handling the calls coming in and going out of their Office. They each felt they had let their team members down because they were not able to help them.

I do believe that if you are the business owner then it is your job to be the leader and make sure everything runs smoothly.

The Doctor is an interesting Professional.

The Doctor’s day is totally devoted to their patients.

There really is not much time between patients other than for a quick Bathroom Break and Lunch…..maybe!

The Office Manager will often train the Front Office People on “how to” answer the phone, but what if they need help while “on” the Phone as well.

The Doctor has 2 choices:

1. Keep seeing their patients and hope the Front Office will be ok.

2. Get someone who specialises in answering the phone, to come in and help.

The first choice is usually the one that most Doctors will take.

It costs a lot less at first, until the flow on effects of having an untrained or a poorly trained team on the phone begins to show.

How many patients have you let go out of your practice because the person picking up the phone is not doing it RIGHT?

You may NEVER know the number.

Ever since I began my consulting business I have become more and more aware of more and more Doctors reaching out for help with their phones. They do this because they are not sure how to best help their team, but more importantly they are doing this because they just don’t have the time to spend with their team.

Look at the pros and cons of having a consultant work with your office team.

Yes there will be an investment to consider and the time management of organising a few things.

Like most investments you make in your business you do need to do the maths to make sure it all adds up.

Every successful business needs help to reach their goals and beyond.

It cannot be done alone.

The introduction of new and better telephone skills for your front office will increase your number of patients [both new and existing] who make appointments, increase the number of patients who keep those appointments and increase the amount of money those patients are needing to invest at those appointments.

It’s quite clear…

This blog will feature simple practical ideas that are easy to implement tomorrow in your Practice, impacting immediately on the Patients Phone Experience, and ultimately, improving your practice profitability.

Phone Excellence Mastery is a simple to implement complete Phone Answering system I developed that helped me to build an extraordinary practice in the heart of working class western Sydney.

For more information on how I can improve your practice profitability contact me, Jayne Bandy at jayne@theDPE.com

And really, there have been so many books written about the Art of Engagement.

We all know this is such an important subject, and a very effective way to connect and communicate with people, so why do we still forget to do it?

I know it is difficult to have eye contact when answering the phone.

Or is it?

I believe if you exercise the art of engagement through eye contact when you are face to face with your patients you will be able to do this over the phone even though the caller cannot see you.

I don’t know about you but I really do know if someone has eye contact with me over the phone. It is harder when you are on the phone because you cannot see them, and they cannot see you. You need to be even better over the phone than you are face to face. This is because you only have their voice and tone to determine how the caller is feeling.

I believe if you are a fully engaged person face to face then you will have no trouble establishing eye contact when you are on the phone.

Try standing up for the call and become physically engaged in the call.

Remove distractions. Never have a full conversation on the phone when you are with another patient face to face. Call the caller back at a time that you can be fully engaged with them and ready to make them an appointment.

We live in a world filled with so many distractions. People are multi-tasking all the time. Full engagement is a challenge to many people.

We don’t really get enough people engagement anyway, so when we do get it, it has a huge impact.

You can set your Medical Office apart from the other offices, just by being more engaged with your patients.

How easy is that?

It doesn’t even have anything to do with the callers’ medical needs yet. It’s all about how you make them they feel when you talk with them.

Start engaging more and see the big difference it makes to your business.

This blog will feature simple practical ideas that are easy to implement tomorrow in your Practice, impacting immediately on the Patient’s Phone Experience, and ultimately, improving your practice profitability.

Phone Excellence Mastery is a simple to implement complete Phone Answering system I developed that helped me to build an extraordinary practice in the heart of working class western Sydney.

For more information on how I can improve your practice profitability contact me, Jayne Bandy at jayne@theDPE.com

Most Medical Offices are busy in one way or another (excuse the cliché).

Having the phone ringing is a huge part of any successful Medical Office.

I have recently become concerned about what happens in the Medical Office when the phone is not ringing.

The Front Office Team will often respond in these ways.

Concern that no one is calling?

Relief that they now have time to do all the other things they need to do

Pick up the phone and contact patients, rather than waiting for the phone to ring

You really need to know which response is coming from your Front Office Team.

I am sure you have decided that you want your Front Office Team to respond with the first and third responses.

If the phone is not ringing always question why and look at ways to change this. When the phone is not ringing, make sure the phone is being picked up and calls are being made by your Front Office Team.

What type of calls can your Office be making?

I am sure there are a few patients who need to be followed up, or called because you haven’t seen them for a while, or courtesy calls for upcoming appointments, or TLC calls to see how they are feeling after any Treatment or surgery. The list goes on….

Communicating with your existing patients is a big part of helping them to maintain their loyalty.

Many or msot Medical offices do not do this!!

We keep in touch with family and friends over the phone so it should be exactly the same in your business.

Your patients want you to keep in touch. It shows you care and increases the trust your patients have in you.

If the phone is not ringing in your Medical Office for a short period of time, use this time to keep in touch with your patients.

Don’t get sidetracked in your office so you then have no time to call your patients.

If you believe that the phone is only there to receive calls you are seriously missing out on growing your Medical Business and connecting more with your patients.

This blog will feature simple practical ideas that are easy to implement tomorrow in your Practice, impacting immediately on the Patients Phone Experience, and ultimately, improving your practice profitability.

Phone Excellence Mastery is a simple to implement complete Phone Answering system I developed that helped me to build an extraordinary practice in the heart of working class western Sydney.

For more information on how I can improve your practice profitability contact me, Jayne Bandy at jayne@theDPE.com